5 Best "Learn French" Affiliate Programs and How to Promote Them

"I love French wine, like I love the French language. I have sampled every language, French is my favorite. Fantastic language. Especially to curse with. Nom de dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d'enculer ta mère. It's like wiping your arse with silk. I love it."

"Like wiping your @$$ with silk ..." LOL. I love the Merovingian character in The Matrix Reloaded. He looked so sophisticated while mouthing French cuss words. He made them sound so well-meaning and erudite that even though I don't like the French language, I wanted to learn French and speak it like he does.

I searched for courses online and found that there are plenty of French courses that can help me get started. Of course, when there are numerous products to answer the same need, there are most likely affiliate programs.

Raison et Comment: The Why and the How of Learning French

The French language is the official language of France and an official language of 28 other countries, such as Canada, Belgium and Switzerland. This language has about 110 million or so native speakers and about 190 million second-language speakers so I'm sure to have plenty of people to practice conversing with as I learn it.

But why learn French, or any foreign language for that matter? Is there a need for us to learn a new language? This Kaplan infographic helps answer such questions.

Now that we've answered the "Why," let's get to "How Many Want to Learn French?" I checked the "learn French" keyword in Traffic Travis and, given the numbers above, was not surprised that the keyword has a high global count and high competition.

There are some low- to medium-competition variations, but their global monthly search values are much lower compared to the high-competition ones.

I went to Ubersuggest to check which keyword variations I could use on my site. When you have high-competition keywords such as this niche does, it's important to look for keyword variations. Maybe we can also find a sub-niche, or a specific market to target, that would make it easier for us to promote our site.

Looking at the above keywords, I can target phrases like "how to learn French online" or "best way to learn French." There aren't many medium- or low-competition keywords to target, really, but the above global monthly searches also show that there is a strong demand for products that teach French.

The "Learn French" Affiliate Programs

There are plenty of courses, both online and offline, that teach French, so I was surprised to find that there are only two good ones in ClickBank: Rocket French and Audible French.

The Rocket French course is one of the several language courses offered by Rocket Languages. Their affiliate program is available through ClickBank so once you've signed up with ClickBank, it's just a matter of getting your affiliate link for a specific language course.

The commission they pay you is quite good, and you're not limited to any particular language, although it's best to promote only one specific language.

Audible French is another product I found in ClickBank. Their gravity is not as high as that of Rocket French, but they offer a pretty good 75% commission for each sale.

I stumbled upon FrenchPod101 in one of my searches for a good "learn French" program. Like Rocket French, FrenchPod101 is part of the bigger Innovative Language Learning site. You can sign up on their affiliate page, choose a specific language, and get a 25% commission for each sale.

FrenchToday.com offers audio lessons and books on how to learn French. Their affiliate program is through the iDevAffiliate network. They pay 20–30% commission for each sale.

Another interesting "learn French" affiliate program I came across is Interactive-Audiotexts.com. They pay you 50% commission for distributing their "Easy-to-Learn French Phrases." Their affiliate program is through SWREG Affiliate.

There are plenty more affiliate programs within this niche, like Amazon, where you can purchase various books and audio books on learning French. So far, though, the highest-paying affiliate programs are Rocket French and Audible French.

Spreading the Love for French

With high-competition keywords such as the ones in this niche, it's important to have a sound marketing and link-building strategy. You need to visualize the site and see how you will promote it and who you will be promoting it too.

YouTube and Other Video Sites

There are plenty of videos online showing how to learn French. This doesn't mean that you need to overlook this particular method. In fact, as the saying goes, "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em." Create a video review of one of the products you're promoting, or record a small presentation on the 5 surefire ways to memorize French words and increase one's vocabulary. Upload it on YouTube, Vimeo and similar sites, making sure that each video has either a link to your site, or your affiliate link.

Document Sharing

Most of the low- to medium-competition keywords in the "learn French" niche are information keywords like "how do I learn French?" or "how long to learn French." You can create articles on these keywords and share them on document-sharing sites like Scribd. You need to make sure at least one of your affiliate links, or a link back to your site, is on the document. Not only can you get traffic to your site, you're able build links through this strategy too.

Social Media Marketing

You've probably noticed by now that social media marketing is always included in my strategy. This is because social media sites have huge followings, and millions of users log in to sites like Facebook and Twitter daily. You can create a Facebook page for your site, and through it share interesting facts about France and the French language. You can have a "French Word of the Day," or you can share special promos on the French courses you're promoting.

"Learn French" Affiliate Programs: Bonjour ou Au Revoir?

High demand usually means high competition, and this is the case for the "learn French" niche. The commission you can earn off the "learn French" affiliate programs will more than make up for the effort. The key here is to plan your site and your link building even before you are done with the research. Will your site be like a personal blog where you share your love for the French language and your journey to become a fluent speaker? Or will it be an information site where users can get good information on learning the French language? After that, write down the link-building methods you will use. Your plan doesn't have to be specific, but it helps to have at least an idea of how you will go about everything so that you can get right to promoting the site once it's up.

I hope you like this week's niche! If you do, please share it on your favorite social media site using the buttons below. Don't be shy, either—let me know what you think. Leave your comments below! :)

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I probably should have mentioned to Cecille (my staff member who wrote this post) that I actually co-founded Rocket Languages, though I sold most of my shares in it just over a year ago to concentrate on personal development niches (health, wealth, relationships, mindset), as I was spreading myself a bit thin now that I have a young family.

Rocket Languages is a fantastic product, with a world class team behind it.

I just wanted to mention that I co-founded it for transparency in case anyone thought I was getting Cecille to make this post just to promote my own affiliate program. It is a coincidence that she found it there while doing her niche research :)

I knew you were into other niches, but didn't really thought you'd be part of a language-learning program. Rocket French is one of the top Learn French affiliate programs in Clickbank, and that's why it's on my list. It's more appealing than ever knowing that you co-founded the product.

Great Post Cecille and great tips. I wish you all the best and good luck with your Learn French Affiliation venture. If possible could you share with us some of your results in lets say 2 to 3 months after your site went live and what you did different to enhance conversion and then maybe after 6 months. It would be interesting to see (learn) the evolution of an affiliate venture through time.

Thanks for your comment and suggestion. "It would be interesting to see (learn) the evolution of an affiliate venture through time."

>>> I agree. Mark did something like this for his World of Warcraft site as well as the EnlightenmentGateway.com site. These are websites for Affiloblueprint 2 and 3, respectively. He started with niche and keyword research, like I do on my Niche of the Week posts, then set the site up and drive traffic to it. The detailed steps are on the Affiloblueprint 3 course. The only part missing is the update on the site: how much is it earning, how many links does it have, etc. Hmmm...maybe we could post a status update for enlightenmentgateway.com?

I'm happy cos my wife speaks and hear French a little bit ( from Nigeria). With this information you have posted freely, I want to say thank you because she will definitely enroll to horn her skill and become better with the language.

It is very interesting how people pick certain niches and what was the motivating factor that led them to research a subject matter that might be considered off the wall, or one that you might not think you could make money with. In this case we have a subject matter that I myself do not have an interest in, however it does lead me to believe that being open minded to possibilities you might not have considered is far more worhwhile than I would have otherwise thought. So this turns out to be a wonderful blog post with things to learn from it and very nicely done.. Paul

Hi Cecille,
Thanks for your great post. In it you mention document sharing along with scribd but I wonder how you feel about article sites. Are they still worthwhile (article marketing) or should our concentration be mostly on social media sites nowadays? (You can tell I have been 'out of the game' for a couple years).

Article marketing is still a good way to build backlinks, but this method can be time-consuming (and poses additional costs if you're going to have your articles written for you). Between this and social media marketing, I would go with the latter.

Thank you Cecille for this great post. I studied in Germany and know two dialects of northern as well as southern German, and learned French for 3 years as a second language in college. I speak Persian, my native language, English and can get by in Arabic and Tagalog. I totally agree with you that French sounds exceptionally smooth, song like and pleasing to speak and listen to. Your post was not only a reminder for me to look for my French books and notes from college, and sign up for Rocket French myself, but also to take advantage of Affiliate Marketing aspect of it.
Excellent post :-)
-Mehdi

Inspiring and great post. Loved your post.ya of-course French is great language. French is used as a second language and native language for 33 countries .French is known as "LANGUAGE OF LOVE". Knowing french language makes your resume better and increase the chances of job . as one can become the certified french translator. Best way to learn French is Internet which provides the course to learn French Online.I go through online course which provides by instructors of alliance Franchise and also French embassy certification.

Thanks for this list. It's perfect to prepare black friday and cyber monday. And you are totally right, French has awesome words to curse :D. My favorite being péripatéticienne de grande surface. It succeeds to sound classy while being extremely insulting.

Rocket has included a "Test it for free" Tab on their (French) Landing Page which means that I, as in the hapless Affiliate, am getting ZERO conversion -- despite having sent them just under 16,000 Visitors. I reported this both to Clickbank and also through the Rocket Home Page, but alas to no avail. I wonder if anybody else has has a similar experience. I shall be most grateful if you let me know.